IRVINE, Calif. – March 27, 2009 – Foreclosure filings were reported on 7,976 properties in the Atlanta metro area in February, up 5 percent from the previous month and 37 percent above the level reported for February 2008, according to the latest RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of foreclosure and bank-owned properties, with over 1.5 million properties from over 2,200 counties across the country, and is the foreclosure data provider to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal.

“Foreclosure activity in the Atlanta metro area continued to climb in February and was markedly ahead of the same time last year,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Contributing to this trend is unemployment, which increased more than 1 percent in January 2009 alone, plus declining home sales and prices.”

Comprised of 28 counties, the Atlanta metro area’s total properties with foreclosure filings was the seventh highest total among the 203 metro areas tracked in the RealtyTrac report. One in every 265 Atlanta metro housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month, ranking the metro area’s foreclosure rate 32nd highest among the 203 metro areas tracked each month by RealtyTrac.

With one in every 119 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during February — 3.3 times the state average and 3.7 times the national average — Newton County had the highest foreclosure rate in both the metro area and the state. WaltonCounty registered the second highest county foreclosure rate, reporting one in every 133 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing — 2.9 times the state average and 3.3 times the national average. Third highest rate was in HenryCounty, where one in every 137 housing units received a foreclosure filing — 2.8 times the state average and 3.2 times the national average.

State ranked top 10 nationally in foreclosure activity for February

Georgia reported 10,185 properties with foreclosure filings in February, giving it the ninth highest state foreclosure total in the nation. This latest total represents a 3 percent increase from the previous month and is 33 percent ahead of the level reported in February 2008. One in every 389 Georgia housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month, the eighth highest state foreclosure rate in the nation.

State a contributor to nation’s foreclosure total in February

Georgia accounted for 4 percent of the 290,631 properties with foreclosure filings reported nationwide in February. The national total represented an increase of 6 percent from the previous month and was nearly 30 percent ahead of the total reported for February 2008. One in every 440 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month.

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing reported during the month — broken out by type of filing at the county, state and national level. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default— Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction— Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is filed against a property during the month — which is extremely rare — only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the report does not count the property in the current month.

For current news and information regarding foreclosure-related issues and trends, check out our blog at www.ForeclosurePulse.com.

RealtyTrac (www.realtytrac.com) is the leading online marketplace of foreclosure properties, with more than 1.5 million default, auction and bank-owned listings from over 2,200 U.S. counties, along with detailed property, loan and home sales data. Hosting more than 3 million unique monthly visitors, RealtyTrac provides innovative technology solutions and practical education resources to facilitate buying, selling and investing in real estate.

Cited by thousands of media outlets each quarter — including all the major news networks, leading publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA TODAY, RealtyTrac’s foreclosure data also has been used by the Federal Reserve, FBI, U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee and Banking Committee, U.S. Treasury Department, and numerous state housing and banking departments to help evaluate foreclosure trends and address policy issues related to foreclosures.

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac® is the leading provider of comprehensive housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, Federal, state and local governments, academic institutions, and the media. Data is aggregated from parcel-level records of more than 125 million U.S. residential and commercial properties and delivered through customizable products including bulk file licensing, APIs and custom reports.